Edited by Rachel Heung
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of Tales from Earthsea, one of the volumes in the Earthsea Series by the author Ursula K. Le Guin (gizmodo.com). And what better way to celebrate this internationally renowned and beloved author of fantasy and utopian science fiction than by establishing a literary prize in her name.
The Ursula K. Le Guin Literary Trust has recently announced the creation of the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for a single work of imaginative fiction. The Prize is worth 25,000USD and will be awarded for the first time on the day of Le Guin’s birthday, 21 October 2022. The nomination period will begin on 1 February 2022 and a jury of five writers will select a work of imaginative fiction published in 2022 by a writer “whose work reflects the concepts and ideas that were central to Ursula's own work, including but certainly not limited to: hope, equity, and freedom; non-violence and alternatives to conflict; and a holistic view of humanity's place in the natural world” (bookbrowse.com).
Ursula K. Le Guin is an award winning American writer who left us 23 novels, 12 volumes of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children’s books, five essay collections, and four works of translation (ursulakleguin.com). For her works, she won six Nebula Awards, seven Hugo Awards, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s (SFWA) Grand Master, and many other awards. In 2014 she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Her novel The Left Hand of Darkness from The Hainish Series is considered pioneering in its exploration of gender roles and their moral complexity. Her novels The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home are some of the masterpieces in utopian fiction.
Her fantasy novel A Wizard of Earthsea published in 1968 is the first in a series of six books known as The Books of Earthsea. The story follows the wizard Ged, also known as Sparrowhawk, the journey to become the Archmage of Earthsea. Ged’s quest is not to fight some outside evil dark lord but to learn the nature of his own vanity, anger and hatred and to master it, by learning its true name. Tales from Earthsea was adapted into a Japanese animated film in 2005.
References
Eddy, C. (2021, October 13). Celebrate Ursula K. Le Guin's Legacy By Reading a Classic
Earthsea Story. Gizmodo. Retrieved January 16, 2022, from
https://gizmodo.com/celebrate-ursula-k-le-guins-legacy-by-reading-a-classi-
1847840456
Ursula K. Le Guin. (n.d.). The new Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. Book Browse.
Retrieved January 16, 2022, from
https://www.bookbrowse.com/news/detail/index.cfm/news_item_number/2821/
news/the-new-ursula-k-le-guin-prize-for-fiction
Ursula K. Le Guin. (2022). The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. Ursula K. Le Guin.
Retrieved January 16, 2022, from https://www.ursulakleguin.com/prize
Comentarios